PHYTOLOGY. 34] 



[OBSERVATIONS ON PHYTOLOGY.] 



OBSERVATIONS AND EXPERIMENTS ON THE VEGETABLE 

 ECONOMY 1 . 



Of Vegetable Life. — The life of a vegetable comes under the same 

 definition with that of an animal. It is a power of action within the 

 vegetable itself, independent of any mechanical power whatever. For, 

 although impulse, which can produce a mechanical effect, may be a 

 cause of that power being brought into action, yet it can be brought 

 into action by causes that are not mechanical — causes that cannot pro- 

 duce any mechanical effect whatever, nor arise from any. A mechanical 

 impulse may produce action within the vegetable, yet the effect is not 

 mechanical : that is, although the body impelling may lose some of its 

 power by this impulse, yet the body impelled [or stimulated] has not 

 acquired the same power, which would be mechanical ; but it may exert 

 a power much greater or less according to circumstances, which power 

 was not received from the impelling body, nor was the power in the 

 impelling body lessened in proportion to the action of the body receiving 

 the impulse [or stimulus]. 



In speaking of vegetable life, and the actions arising from it, the same 

 language is applicable as in speaking of the operations of an animal. 



1 [The manuscript volume containing these ' Observations,' &c, was liberally pre- 

 sented to me, in May 1860, by Ed. Rushworth, Esq., nephew and executor of 

 Captain Sir Everard Home, Bart., R.N. : it is a small thin quarto bound in parch- 

 ment. On the inside of the back is the following memorandum in Capt. Sir E. 

 Home's handwriting : — " The handwriting of Mr. Bell, Mr. Hunter, Everard 

 Home, and others. Two pages of index. The volume wants pages 20, 29, 30, 

 77, 78; then perfect to page 164; after which there are two leaves numbered 169 

 and 170, and 175 and 176. There is a strip of paper stuck in between pages 34 and 

 35, another between pages 38 and 39, between 52 and 53, and one on 53 ; between 

 96 and 97, one on 176, and two on the cover inside. — E. H., Sept. lOtb, 1829." 



These intercalated strips are, with one exception, in the handwriting of John 

 Hunter : the exception is the letter from Dr. Solander (p. 355), in reply to a question 

 by Hunter, as to climbing, sleeping and moving plants. 



The MS. on the left-hand pages is by the amanuensis ; that on the opposite pages 

 is in the handwriting of Hunter, supplementing the text, which also contains inter- 

 lineations, corrections, and erasures by Hunter's hand. 



A copy of this volume was presented by Capt. Sir E. Home, Bart., to the Royal 

 College of Surgeons, in 1829.] 



